The Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which is sometimes referred to as Web Services Definition Language, is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. WSDL is described in “Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1, W3C Note 15 Mar. 2001” available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); the entire content of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes as if fully disclosed herein. WSDL provides a well-defined standard for distribution and use of information contained within a WSDL document.
The XQuery language is described in “XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language, W3C Working Draft 4 Apr. 2005” available from the W3C organization; the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully disclosed herein. XQuery is a popular programming language for querying XML data sources. In addition to providing for extraction of data from an XML data source, XQuery may also be used to facilitate XML data manipulations and transactional operations via, for example, XQuery functions. XQuery is designed to be a language in which statements are concise and easily understood. XQuery is also flexible enough to use with a broad spectrum of XML information sources, including both databases and documents. XQuery operates on the abstract, logical structure (i.e., the data model) of an XML document, rather than its surface syntax. Thus, the XQuery language provides an option in which programmers can develop business logic for applications and services.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.